Māori Seabed, For Shore!
Should five percent appear too small. Be thankful, they don't take it all?
No one owns the water
No one owns the lands
No one owns the oceans
No one owns the sands
These are given by our mother
The planet provides for free
Only at the hands of the greedy
Does the Earth require a fee, eyeah (ooh-ooh-ooh)
You hear me singing (ah-ah-ah)
Song - Ria Hall.
“This is going to blow up, they have to sack Goldsmith,” I ranted as the news started last night. Fi looked up, pausing her audiobook, and said “What?”
“A government minister is meeting with businesses and telling them not to worry, Māori won’t be claiming hardly any of the foreshore and seabed. Has he told Māori that? This is going to explode.” I took my rant to social media, wondering if anyone else was seeing this and feeling furious.
Even after all the anti-Māori actions and rhetoric from this government to date, all their Banana Republic cronyism, I was still shocked at what I was hearing.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith had a private meeting with Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones and seafood industry representatives in May. So far so good, I assume that at any given time Shane Jones is being wined, dined, or in some way entertained by Big Fish, or some other lobby group.
So what were they giving away now? Removing cameras from fishing boats? That’s old news, how about re-classifying endangered sea mammals as pests requiring culling? Now you’re talking. But wait, there’s more, before you allegedly write out that big fat donation cheque - there’s something else we can do for you…
Paul Goldsmith, our Treaty Negotiations Minister, told them that he was changing the Marine and Coastal Area Act and that the customary rights of Māori would only affect a tiny fraction of our coastline. “Changing the section 58 test should reduce the 100% of coastline subject to customary marine title to 5%”, he said.
You can watch that segment from 1 News here:
According to the news report Māori rights, over the foreshore and seabed, face the biggest shake-up in decades. But before we look at the current situation let’s have a bit of a refresher on that legislation.
Foreshore and Seabed - A Brief History
At the end of 2003 Fi and I, along with Johnny who stowed away somewhere in SE Asia, returned from our second stint in the UK to an Aotearoa in turmoil.
In preceding years there’d been a number of claims that could have affected rights to the foreshore and seabed and the country was awash with National Party misinformation telling the good people of NZ that those mean old Māori were going to stop them using the beaches. Which was utter garbage that only a racist would take seriously. Fortunately for Don Brash he found a rich vein of those to tap into.
It was all Kiwi vs Iwi and that absurd “rivers of blood” Orewa speech as the National Party took a racism rocket up the polls and people freaked out. OMG - they’re taking the beaches!
Later that year the Helen Clark government enacted the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 and in so doing defeated the vile Brash, a forerunner of our current retrograde rabble. She also created huge resentment and Te Pāti Māori was formed in response with protestors marching to Wellington.
Depending on who you are Clark’s actions were either pragmatic in setting aside the beaches for all Kiwi, or ugly populism, pandering to racists even though Māori had no intention of stopping anyone else from using the beach.
John Key, who always knew when he could gain something from giving away very little, repealed that unpopular law and replaced it with another, the current Marine and Coast Area Act 2011, which concerned Māori and anti-Māori alike.
The Present
There is still huge bitterness over the foreshore legislation. Whatever you think of Helen Clark’s actions resentment and distrust fromMāori towards Labour remains twenty years later. In the interests of the country, if not Goldsmith and his party, National would do well to take note.
So what has been happening recently? This from Wikipedia:
In late July 2024, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith confirmed that the Government would disregard a 2023 New Zealand Court of Appeal ruling that lowered the threshold for proving Māori customary marine title claims. Goldsmith announced that the Government would amend section 58 of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 to require marine title claimants to prove they had continual exclusive use and ownership of the area since 1840.
This law change was part of National's coalition agreement with NZ First. In response, Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris accused the Government of taking away Māori rights and warned that the Government should expect protests.
It was these changes that Goldsmith was promoting with Big Fish lobbyists. He must have used a time machine to get there as he was telling them about the July changes back in May. It almost makes you wonder who was telling who what the changes would/should be.
Back to last night’s story, Harry Clatworthy, who represents Ngāti Te Wehi claimants, said of Goldsmith’s changes, “That essentially wipes out the entirety of Māori rights in the takutai moana that were promised in Te Tiriti, if only 5% of iwi can have rights recognised in very isolated areas.”
So are the beaches safe?
The beaches were never under threat, that was a poisonous lie told to incite hatred and fear towards Tangata Whenua. You know the image of that angry guy telling people to “get off his land” - well newsflash, that’s a pakeha mindset. Māori just want a say in their land, and that’s the problem for Big Fish and hence their representatives like Jones and Goldsmith.
“If customary marine title is granted, Māori can give or refuse permission for certain activities that require resource consent. Those rights apply from the high tide mark and up to 12 nautical miles out to sea.”
During that fishy meeting, Goldsmith called the 12-mile distance “ridiculous” and said Māori “presumably had a navy to enforce that”.
Who talks like that? C’mon, you know who talks like that.
What an absurd suggestion, that customary rights require a navy to exist. Still, if Goldsmith is calling for a force of people ready to stand up for Māori rights then I think he just might find one.
Clatworthy went on to say, “The fact that the hui took place before the changes to the act were announced, and before Māori were consulted with, suggest to the claimants that the seafood industry's concerns are primary and the rights of Māori are secondary.”
I thought that summed things up well.
When it comes to things like access to the seabed, and those 12 miles out to sea, it’s quite apparent that as far as people like Goldsmith are concerned it is business interests first and Māori last. In fact, that could be their slogan at the next election…
Business Interests First, Māori Last, National 2026.
I’m kidding, this Māori last approach has got NZ First written all over it and I’m sure they’ll want to share the credit.
The Prime Minister attempted to calm things down by saying there was nothing to see here. He said, “All we're doing is we're moving it back to what Parliament intended in 2011, which is to make sure that we actually have legitimated protection of Māori customary rights, and legitimate protection of all New Zealanders.”
Really? Mr Luxon. Is that what Parliament intended? That future governments would overturn rulings from the New Zealand Court of Appeal when they didn’t like them?
Or did he mean that the intention of John Key’s government of the time was to allow for customary rights in theory, overturning the unfair legislation from Labour, but not actually in practice?
Was it the 2011 parliament’s intention that Māori aspirations should be permitted, but only if they didn’t interfere with business interests? That they were things for museums, or to hang on a wall, but not intended to be real? This was the concern of Māori at the time.
To be fair he’s probably right.
Green Party MP Huhana Lyndon said, “I am gobsmacked by some of the discussion that took place and certainty the distance, the nautical miles. The moana was our state highway for te iwi Māori, let that be clear. It is absolutely outrageous that we have a minister that is having dinner with the industry and strategising about how they're going to undermine the [Marine and Coastal Area] takutai moana claims process.”
In my view any government Minister who discusses a legislation change with lobbyists, before it is even being drafted, is unacceptable and Goldsmith should be sacked if Luxon has a shred of integrity.
As for Jones, I hold even less hope of him being held accountable with his leader making it clear that there’s no standard to which NZ First MPs will be held. No level of corporate “co-operation” is deemed too unsightly.
Clatworthy said, “For the elderly kaumatua and kuia, they're worried they won't be alive to see a rehearing of their cases, so that's a massive setback. But, regardless, they feel it’s their duty as kaitiaki to stand up for their rights in the moana.”
Today the Waitangi Tribunal begins an urgent inquiry into the changes, and we go round again.
But this time when the cry comes to stand with the racists in a lie about keeping the beaches safe for all, or alongside Māori whose rights are under attack yet again, which side will you choose?
Back in 2004, I thought Helen Clark had come up with a pragmatic, but unpopular, solution. But you live and you learn and in the years since I’ve come to realise that as politically expedient as that decision was it was also wrong.
Māori should never have had restrictions placed on their rights to make customary claims and these actions from Goldsmith and the coalition are even more wrong given that they are motivated by commercial interests whereas Clark sought to calm the racist rhetoric of the time by preserving the foreshore and seabed for all.
Māori as kaitiaki should have a say in how resources are used in customary areas. That shouldn’t come as a threat to anyone unless they want to exploit those resources in a way that is inconsistent with that guardianship role.
A role that benefits all of us. Don’t be afraid, and when the time comes - stand up.
My apologies, I suspect I might’ve included this song in a newsletter a while back, still I reckon it warrants further listens. Ria Hall - Rangatira/Owner.
Although most of my newsletters are for paying subscribers I felt this one ought to be left open, hope that makes sense. 🙂
At 67 and a Pakeha I am absolutely appalled by all this corrupt underhand government are doing. I will stand with Maori against them for as long as I can.